While snow geese are now hard to hunt in the state, the growing Canada goose population has replaced some of the excitement formally offered by the snows. Twenty five years ago, it was really rare to see or shoot a Canada goose when hunting snow geese in the Devils Lake area. They were very rare. But gradually, the numbers have grown and now include many of the giants in the 12 pound plus range. Canada goose action can be downright phenomenal in scattered locations and very productive on a regular basis along the Missouri River.
Duck hunting success has been more dependent on weather conditions and drought rather than on a shift in flight patterns.
The 70s were excellent years for ducks. There were a particularly large number of ducks in 1979 when water levels increased. But, after that, the prairies went into a decade long drought cycle. We had some good success in 1987 in very dry conditions, but we just happened to be in a very good field without any local pressure from other hunters even though we were only a mile from town. Other than that, ducks were in very short supply for most of the decade. I remember shooting a large number of snow geese in 1991 but don’t remember shooting a duck.
The ducks did not really return to the area we hunt until 1993 when mid-summer rains filled the potholes and induced a great late hatch of ducks. Fortunately, the CRP lands that had been lying fallow were just waiting to produce ducks. Duck numbers peaked for us in the 1996 through 2000 period and have fallen gradually since then.
In summary, the past 27 years or so has shown a decided shift in the snow goose population while the ducks have gone through cycles based on drought.
Hunting Pressure
The hunting pressure in North Dakota that is confounding everyone these days is not a new phenomenon. There was a lot of pressure in 1975. There were about 70,000 total licenses issued that year. But most of the hunters were residents. Despite there being relatively few NRs in those days, some of them were traveling to North Dakota to hunt snow geese virtually every weekend of the season. The pressure from local hunters and the presence of the every weekend non-resident resulted in the establishment of zones and quotas per zone for the first time. It was never a problem getting a license but those zones were quite a bother to us non-residents in those days. We hunted right on the boundary of three zones. The 1979 hunt referred to above was actually done outside our designated zone by about a mile. But, when you are hunting with a North Dakota resident, what are you going to do? By the way, the game warden did watch our party of four shoot every one of our 17 geese that morning. But, because we didn’t shoot early and chased down all of our cripples, no citations were issued.
The hunting pressure resulted in a lot of posting north of Lake Alice. The fields there were virtually inaccessible in the 70s. We didn’t even bother to scout in that territory. However, the drought of the 1980s and the decline in the total number of waterfowlers in North Dakota changed the picture completely. In the late 80s and early 90s, hunters could hunt on fields immediately adjacent to the refuge boundary. I remember hunting geese there with my shirt off and getting a sun tan one year and sitting in three inches of water and mud the next year. The hunting was great next to the refuge.
The rest of the area we hunted during the lean years in the 80s and most of the 90s showed very little hunting pressure as total hunters declined. We rarely ran into a problem. There were some dorks from our home state that downwinded us one year and some guys from Devils Lake that got to our field quite awhile after we did and shared the field with us. But other than that, pressure was very light where we hunted. Even as late as 2000, the minimal amount of hunters and how many ducks there were impressed us in the local area we were hunting. During that mid season weekend, we only saw two other parties out hunting over a four-day weekend.
As all good things must come to an end, that has all changed just in the last two years. Hunter numbers and hunting pressure has steadily risen. The posting north of Alice may even exceed what it was in the 1970s. The posting all seems ridiculous to me. 
There are geese around for only about a week anyway. But, the guides have the land all locked up just in case the migration flight should hit just right. We found a mother lode of ducks on the Halloween weekend in 2002 but the guides were still trying to squeeze out some money by controlling access to fields when there were probably only two parties field hunting in the whole county. We never got at that mother lode! Times are changing.
Part Two of the Series
There were plenty of geese around Jamestown in early October in 1975. In the late 70s, a hunter could expect to do some serious goose hunting in the northern tier of counties during the opening two weeks of the season. The geese might even have been on Arrowwood in those days by mid-month. I remember the skies and fields being full of geese on the Columbus Day weekend in 1975. Waves of geese flew steadily on relatively warm and clear mornings on their way between Hurricane Lake and Lake Alice. We had a real good morning’s shoot in 1979 on a field south of Highway 2 near Penn. Even in 1986, it was easy to limit out (just five per day, then) on the opening weekend.
Finally, in 2000 it happened. There were virtually no snows that year on Columbus Day weekend and we were skunked. Fortunately, the number of ducks that year more than compensated for the scarcity of snows.
